Gravity

"What keeps objects from floating out of your hand? What if your feet drifted away from the ground? What stops everything from floating into space? Gravity... Jason Chin has taken a complex subject and made it brilliantly accessible to young readers in this unusual, innovative, and very beautiful book."--www.Amazon.com.

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Our house loves Jason Chin. We currently own two of his titles and will read anything he authors. As usual the art is stellar. Great art! The story is just a little light. Not a lot here. We flipped through in a matter of minutes and were done. A little underwhelming. Leaves us hungry for more of Galapagos. Try it anyway. Your kids might love it!

This book seems very simple. Just a few sentences and some beautiful drawings. I've read it one-on-one with my preschooler, and I've read it to a class of young children (ages 4-6) and in every case this book evokes WONDER and brings forward lots of questions and great scientific thinking about our universe, our bodies, distance, time, and even in some cases how light travels or the spaces in between celestial bodies. How do forces work? what are the strongest forces? Why can't we see them? Are my muscles stronger than gravity?

Be prepared to answer questions and investigate when you read this one with your littles. They will truly enjoy it. I hope that you can appreciate it as much as we did!

Bold text dances across the page in this playful ode to gravity. Jason Chin matter-of-factly describes what would happen if the force that held us on earth and in orbit disappeared. At the same time, whimsical illustrations show toys floating away and planets drifting apart. With a similar feel to David Wiesner’s books, but much shorter, Gravity will appeal to the whole family, toddler and up.

Our 4 year old loved this book
Simple yet effective, great illustrations and got the conversation started.
Our son has already had interest in gravity and learnt about it and I thought this book may be too simple but in fact it is perfect.

This book is just gorgeous! I was blown away by the art in this simple, clear children's picture book about the basics of gravity. I was also quite happy to find a science picture book where the main character is a child of color. We don't see that often enough! Older kids won't learn much that's new about gravity, though it's always good to review the basics in case of a physics emergency. But the beauty, the art, and the humorous journey presented as the narrator explains gravity will delight kids and grownups. (Unless they're grumpy grownups who don't like neat stuff.)

Within the illustrations, this book itself dramatically depicts the concept of gravity. The first six pages alone are used to drive home the most relevant point. We are drawn to the Earth. Next, a young boys toys demonstrate the laws importance on a grander scale, space. For this, the book acts like a window, until it finally drops back to Earth into the laps of different children. The artist has created some magnificent compositions. Perspective, size, and space visually mimic the content; it feels like we the readers are in the book holding the book, while the sun, being "massive", fills both pages. The text too follows suit, changing size or its angle to emphasize each point, in this way the limited word-count is used to its full potential. The package is completed with striking colours. The fantastical journey of these toys will appeal to children and adults alike. Jason Chin's simple narrative only has enough space for the basics, but he does include additional information in the back. Still, it is an extremely effective and delightful demonstration of gravity.

BklynKalliopiM
Dec 18, 2014

Delightfully illustrated new picture book explains gravity - would be fantastic as a read aloud in the classroom, or in the home. Science and space lovers will devour this one.

Beautifully illustrated nonfiction title that explains gravity in very simple language for the preschool through kindergarten set. Great for story time and science-minded folks. I especially love how Chin brings it all back to Earth.

Through bold, attention-grabbing illustrations and easy-to-understand language, this book introduces the concept of gravity by showing what life would be like without it. A boy watches as his toy astronaut floats off into space -- and then the boy grabs onto a rock as he, too, begins to float away! Though the boy doesn't get his toy back, kids will relish the intriguing visual details and clever conclusion of this fascinating read.